A Johannesburg banking executive has discovered that divorce and ensuring that the estranged spouse continues to live the same lifestyle as before the break-up is costly, says a report in The Star.

The husband, identified in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) judgment as Mr JC, will have to pay his wife more than R2m on 1 October.

He will then have to pay at least R88 000 a month towards his wife’s maintenance and that of his two children, apart from school fees and other expenses.

This is pending the conclusion of the divorce, when it will again be calculated what his wife and children are entitled to.

Acting Judge SDJ Wilson said applications under Rule 43 were, ideally, swift and simple matters, since they sought only to arrange the parties’ financial affairs equitably for what should be a limited period before the divorce was finalised.

The aim was to ensure that neither party was prejudiced during the divorce proceedings by a lack of resources to maintain a reasonable standard of living.

Wilson commented that the husband was rather coy about his wealth, but there was little doubt that he had a substantial income, made up of not only his salary, but also from bonuses and investments.

The husband at first claimed his income was just under R100 000 a month, but his financial disclosures revealed a true net income of just under R7m in the last financial year.

Those disclosures sought to emphasise that, of this, there was only a R4m ‘cash component’, but the fact remained that the husband was a man of considerable resources, the judge added.

Full report in The Star

Judgment